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Is the Navajo Mine a Viable Option? Growing Opposition Doesn’t Think So

Alysa Landry

2/6/14

Citing human and environmental health concerns and an uncertain future for fossil fuels, a growing group of Navajo citizens is calling on the Interior Department to reverse the tribe’s recent purchase of Navajo Mine.

The 24-member Navajo Nation Council in December approved the $85 million purchase in a move proponents hope solidifies the tribe’s role in energy development. The decades-old mine located south of Farmington, New Mexico, contains coal reserves to last for the next 100 years, but opponents claim costs to health should outweigh economic benefits.

“Coal is a dirty business and it’s already impacting negatively on our health,” said Duane “Chili” Yazzie, president of the Shiprock Chapter, the largest Navajo community in Northwest New Mexico. “The coal market itself is declining, so the overall trend is away from fossil fuel. The Environmental Protection Agency seems like they’re going to get more and more stringent, so why do we want to buy into a dying industry?”

Yazzie, with support from his chapter, is threatening legal action against the Navajo Nation Council in order to halt the purchase. Besides his concerns about the environment and health, Yazzie believes council members acted in secret, violating citizens’ rights to weigh in on the matter.

“There has been no deliberate effort to present the idea of a mine purchase to the people at any time,” he said. “Our right to free, prior and informed consent is violated.”

Purchase of the mine was a lengthy process, beginning years ago when Southern California Edison, the largest interest owner at the nearby Four Corners Power Plant, announced its intent to move toward cleaner energy. Four Corners Power Plant is the sole purchaser of coal from Navajo Mine.

As the purchase of the mine was coming together in December, Arizona Public Service Company finalized a deal to buy out Southern California Edison’s interests in the plant. APS, which now has 63 percent ownership of the power plant, then permanently closed three of the five units as part of its plan to bring the plant into compliance with federal clean air standards.

The purchase deal, between the recently established Navajo Transitional Energy Company and the mine’s former owner, BHP Billiton, allows production to continue at the mine beyond 2016, when BHP’s current lease expires. The mine produces about 8 million tons of coal every year and brings in $41 million annually.

Proponents of the purchase say the acquisition is a major step in taking control of the tribe’s natural resources.

“Rather than sitting on the sidelines, we now have a say in the energy industry in terms of how that reserve of coal is being used,” said LoRenzo Bates, chairman of the Navajo Nation Council’s Budget and Finance Committee. “This say goes beyond the coal industry and allows us a voice in alternative forms of energy. Coal can have other uses, and this makes us a player in the industry.”

Since the mine and the power plant first began operating in the 1960s, the tribe has pulled in lease payments, royalties and taxes. Purchase of the mine allows those payments to continue, and it saves jobs for Navajo people, Bates said. About 800 people are employed by the mine.

“We have the power to maintain jobs at the mine and power plant and maintain revenue going forward,” he said. “It will have its challenges from opponents like environmentalists who are completely against the industry, but hopefully we’ll move forward and work through this.”

Not all tribal members are as optimistic about the future.

Yazzie, who historically has lobbied for more and better-paying jobs on the reservation, has petitioned the Interior Department for clarification on whether the purchase is final. The unemployment rate on the Navajo Nation hovers near 50 percent, but Yazzie believes purchase of the mine was shortsighted.

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Coal is one of the "dirtiest" sources of natural resources that there is. It requires mammoth amounts of water to process that leaves contamination that effects all life it comes in contact with. The contaminated water will effect the health of people for generations. As Dineh, our forefathers did not leave us all the ill-effects of horrible industries such as this and we should do everything in our power to ensure our children and their children have the same privilege.
The EPA is at work devising emission control plans to limit carbon dioxide that power plants emit. Obama expects it to be in place by 2017. We are kidding ourselves if they think the mind-boggling amounts of air pollutants is not effecting melting glaciers, heat waves, and rising of sea.
Alternate energy is what is being called for. Solar power? Wind power? If we are not turning our minds in this direction, we will be playing catch-up and left with catastrophic medical needs that tribes are already struggling to meet.